It cost £150 million to restore over six years. Is it worth it? Tom Chesshyre is the first to review the newly restored station hotel

Down below, somewhere way down below, I could hear the rumble and roll of a
train. My first-floor room vibrated slightly. And then the sound passed. I
waited a couple of minutes: it started again.

I tried to work out where the noise was coming from. Through my window I could
see the huge arch of the train shed — designed by the Victorian engineer
William Barlow — with a handful of long slug-like trains waiting to depart
to the Continent. Passengers were passing the statue of John Betjeman, who
famously (and thankfully) campaigned to save the station from demolition in
the